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With creepy clowns on the prowl across the nation these days, real life is beginning to feel like a horror movie. But for those who prefer to get their dose of the unearthly and macabre the old fashioned way, there are plenty of opportunities in the tri-state this Halloween season.

From the frightening forests of Connecticut to the wicked warehouses of New York City, there are dozens of attractions to check out. Most of them are in the $20 to $50 range and are open rain or shine through early November. Tickets tend to be cheaper online and some places give deals on weekdays.

Blood Manor bills itself as "New York City's premiere haunted attraction." It's in a West Village warehouse filled with freaks, creeps, and yes, plenty of blood. In early November, the Manor will have Lights Out Nights, where visitors have just a glow stick to show them the way. General admission: $35.

New York Haunted Hayride is a Randall's Island haunt right in the shadow of Manhattan's towering skyline. In addition to the hayride, which features ghostly apparitions and backwoods hillbillies, there's also a dark maze and a haunted village with a Theatre Macabre, supernatural psychics, and more. General admission: $37.

The Uninvited: Awakening is an immersive horror production that lets visitors choose their own adventure in the historic Graham Court building in Harlem. Theatrical storytelling, twisting halls, grisly scenes, and state-of-the-art special effects combine to induce a "heart pounding experience." General admission: $45.

This Is Real is an "all new horror experience" in Red Hook from the creators of Nightmare: New York. As part of a "theatrical immersion," guests have been abducted and must figure out a way to escape their captors in an hour-long "survival game and extreme hide and seek." General admission: $100.

Haunted New York City

Ashley Bellman visits some of they city's spookiest sites

(Published Monday, Nov. 2, 2015)

North of NYC

Headless Horseman is a bit of a trek from the city, but the haunt includes 10 attractions, among them, a haunted manor, motel, diner and greenhouse. Naturally, there's plenty of Headless Horseman to go around at this Ulster Park attraction, including the Horseman's Spawn hayride and the Horseman's Tomb haunted house. General admission: $39.95 plus tax.

Pure Terror Scream Park features six haunted houses at one location in Monroe. There's a crypt of evil dead, a post-zombie apocalypse medical building, a dwelling of evil witches, a circus of creepy clowns, a house full of horror movie legends and another house that's completely in the dark. General admission: $45.

The Forest of Fear was voted the scariest haunt in New York state by users of HauntWorld.com. The Tuxedo Park haunt has seven attractions, including a slaughterhouse, hillbilly house, chainsaw repair shop, spa of the macabre, and a cemetery of the dead. General admission: $30.

Haunt at Rocky Ledge says it has the only haunted cornfield in Westchester County. The White Plains attraction also has two "mind-blowing" haunted houses and "frightening, winding wooded trails" on eight ghoulish acres. General admission: $24.

Bayville Scream Park is an attraction-packed haunt in Bayville. Billed as "Long Island's Halloween theme park," there is an evil woods, terrifying temple, frightening funhouse and a haunted mansion. There's also a house of zombie pirates and a new event, The Cage, for 2016. General admission: $49.75.

Darkside Haunted Houses has been around for nearly two decades. There's two attractions at this Wading River haunt in the middle of a deserted field: The Village and The House. Visitors traverse 30 detailed scenes, including a graveyard, crypt, insane asylum and slaughterhouse. General admission: $25.

Gateway's Haunted Playhouse is just what it sounds like: a haunted house in a theater. The Bellport haunt has plenty of dark corridors hiding madmen and bloody clowns. Guests can take a ride in a coffin, shoot zombies at the new Zombie Shooting Gallery or grab a beer at the Fear Garden. General admission: $25.

Chamber of Horrors is bringing back its "Trilogy of Fear." This year there are three new houses: Maniac Manor, Murderer's Row and Ward 9. The Hauppauge haunt also has Kill the Light on Sunday nights, when the lights are turned off and guests have only a glowstick to see with. General admission: $25.

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(Published Friday, Oct. 30, 2015)

New Jersey

Brighton Asylum is a Passaic haunt in an industrial warehouse that The Today Show called "the scariest place on earth." Guests must descened into The Tunnel before reaching the Asylum, where they'll encounter plenty of monsters, maniacs and escaped patients. Special events include Brighton Asylum Escape and Zombie Attack. General admission: $33.

Bane has one big haunted house instead of several smaller ones. The Livingston haunt was called the "scariest haunted house in New Jersey" by The Star-Ledger. Guests will encounter 70 live actors as they climb, push and spin their way through the morbid interactive house. General admission: $27.

Pantophobia is an entirely outdoor haunted attraction. The Scotch Plains haunt pits guests against flesh-eating zombies as they navigate an abandoned amusement park. There's also a family-friendly Pumpkin Express train ride that travels to a pumpkin patch. General admission: $30.

Haunted Scarehouse is an attraction in Wharton inspired by Disney's "awe-inspiring levels of craftsmanship, detail, and live performance." Visitors navigate two large houses filled with maze-like corridors and elaborate, ghastly scenes. There are also 60-minute escape room experiences that can be purchased separately. General admission: $25.

Fright Haven is centered around the legend of a Gothic Victorian mansion where a Halloween party was held hundreds of years ago. No one returned from the party and now it's infested with cannibalistic vampires. There's also a pitch-black Fear Institute and a Carnival of Evil in 3D at this Stratford attraction. General admission: $20.

Creeperum is an "emporium of the bizarre" where a lab-created creature stalks the rooms. The creature was created by a mad scientist who mysteriously went missing. Guests who enter this Hamden haunt are left to "wander in almost total darkness searching for a way out." General admission: $20.

Trail of Terror is an outdoor haunted attraction that has guests confronting creepy clowns, chainsaw-wielding psychos and indescribable creatures. The haunt is set in the woods of Wallingford and you never know when a ghoul will emerge from deep in the trees. General admission: $20.

The Haunted Graveyard bills itself as New England's largest Halloween attraction. Those who visit go on a one-mile journey through dark catacombs, an eerie cemetery, torture chamber, creepy cornfield, misty lake, and more. Tickets for various carnival rides at this Bristol haunt are sold separately. General admission: $25.99.

Tour the Winchester Mystery House

The unusual 19th-century mansion is both intriguing and baffling at the same time. It has doors that lead to nowhere, secret passageways in the walls, 2-inch-high steps, and a fascination with the number 13. While this seems like madness to us, it was totally normal for the owner, Sarah Winchester, the widow and heir to the Winchester rifle fortune.
She designed the house to confuse ghosts. This episode of Open House was hosted from the home of Designer Apryl Miller.